New health-related shows are here, and some have nurse characters. The central character on the NBC mockumentary St. Denis Medical seems to be a senior nurse. And ABC's Doctor Odyssey, set on a cruise ship, actually has two nurse characters. But other new shows seem to fit the physician-centric model of ABC's Grey's Anatomy, especially Fox's Doc and NBC's Brilliant Minds. In any case, good portrayals of nursing will return, on the long-running Call the Midwife (BBC/PBS) and Virgin River (Netflix).
October 2024 – This is a transition year for health-related shows on prime time U.S. television, as several new shows arrive in the wake of veteran shows that ended last season. The new show with perhaps the highest potential for some helpful portrayals of nursing may be NBC's new mockumentary St. Denis Medical (Nov. 12). There, the central, narrating character seems to be a beleaguered senior nurse. Producer Ryan Murphy, whose Ratched now looks unlikely to return, is back with ABC's Doctor Odyssey (Sept. 26), about a physician-led health team working on a luxury cruise ship. There are two nurse characters, including a nurse practitioner (NP). Both nurses are highly competent--but the NP badly wants to be a physician, reinforcing the stereotype that that is what nurses dream of. The other new shows look to focus heavily on heroic physicians, with little to no meaningful depiction of nursing, in accord with the Hollywood model. Fox's Doc(premiering mid-season) is a drama about a "brilliant" physician who has lost her recent memory after a brain injury. The showrunner worked on ABC's physician-dominated Private Practice, and the likelihood of a good portrayal of nursing here is low. NBC's Brilliant Minds (Sept. 23) is about a pioneering neurologist based on Oliver Sacks. His team is composed of "brilliant young interns," and there are basically no nurse characters, apart from the petty bureaucrats who occasionally get in the lead physician's way. Overall, note the new shows' focus on "doc" and "brilliant" – never good signs. Among returning shows, Call the Midwife (BBC/PBS; early 2025) will be back for a 14th season about the work of skilled, autonomous nurse-midwives in London, now in 1970. It remains the best show for nursing on U.S. television. Netflix's Virgin River (Dec. 19) whose lead character is a highly competent nurse practitioner (NP) in a small California town, is expected to return for a sixth season in late 2024. And NBC will air, at some point, the fourth season of the Canadian drama Transplant, about a skilled trauma physician from Syria who has started over in Toronto. Physician characters are the focus, though there is a minor NP character who plays an important role in care. Other returning shows include NBC's Chicago Med (Sept. 25), which also focuses on physicians, but has two major nurse characters with real skill and authority. And ABC's Grey's Anatomy (Sept. 26) will continue to offer a vision of hospital care in which physicians do everything that matters. Please join us in encouraging Hollywood to offer more accurate portrayals of nursing!
